Vietnam's richest person increases eightfold to $44 billion after a 200% EV IPO bonanza

The 55-year-old is worth $44.3 billion, up $39 billion from the day before. The billionaire was worth $5.3 billion before the IPO, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The Nasdaq stock market opened VinFast's stock at $22, up 200% from the $10 per share price negotiated with Black Spade Acquisition, the EV maker's SPAC partner.

Shares closed at $37.06 and fell 14% after-hours.

Bloomberg calculates Vuong's net worth based on his 61% share in Vingroup, a Hanoi-based conglomerate that owns VinFast. He also directly or indirectly owns 99% of VinFast, restricting the amount of shares accessible for open market trade.

The tycoon's money may not last due to the stock's minimal trading volume. Therefore, Bloomberg will only update Vuong's net worth after VinFast trade stabilizes.

However, Vuong's billionaire status is not a fluke. Vuong told Tuoi Tre News in 2019 that he studied geo-economic engineering at a Russian institution and founded a firm in his third year.

Vuong subsequently created a Moscow restaurant and a Vietnamese imports firm, but he "eventually lost everything and went bankrupt" after responding "poorly" to market shifts, he told the media source.

He told Tuoi Tre News he went for Kharkiv, Ukraine, $40,000 in debt.

Bloomberg says he began an instant noodle business in Ukraine in the 1990s despite the setback. After returning to Vietnam in 2001, he sold his instant noodle business to Nestle in 2010 for an unknown amount.

He had formed Vingroup, a real estate giant, by then. Last year, the company earned 130.5 trillion Vietnamese dong, or $5.4 billion, up 1%.

"Hyundai and Toyota can do that. Why can't Vietnam? The US has Microsoft and Apple. Why doesn't Vietnam have anything similar?" he told the news outlet.

Source: Business Insider